si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice [translation]

I can't remember now what brought me there, but I recently found myself researching word and phrase origins, and for some reason the origin for "thinking outside the box" stuck with me.

Well, not so much "some reason" as "a really complicated story".

Several months ago, a co-worker brought in a large-ish cardboard box that contained a plastic bag filled with beanbag filling. It was intended for the beanbag in their office, but since it would be such a mess to transfer the little toxic pellets into the beanbag, there was much procrastination.

Finally, weary of having a big box in his office, and concerned about a forthcoming shared office situation, Bt stuffed the pellets (still in the plastic bag) into the bean bag and put the box outside his office to be taken away by whatever magic fairies come and take away the things we don't want any more.

Bt must not be paid up on his fairy plan, because the box sat there.

And sat there.

For several more months.

Since I walked by the box in the hallway every day, now it was starting to annoy me. One day I realized that the box was nearly the same dimensions as one of the low-backed chairs in my office. I wasn't sure, though. I mean, it could be a little too narrow, since the chair...well, there's only one way to find out!

We now have a chair in our office that sits inside a box. There wasn't really enough room in the box for most of us to be able to sit in the chair, so it got a lot of comments (I'm sure if it had been the right size to readily fit an occupant, it would have garnered no comments whatsoever). Av was able to actually fit, though, so we took pictures and made all sorts of obvious jokes.

One day I came in to work and someone had written in blue marker on the box:

i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i am bad
i can't take it any more

Recently, though, during an especially crowded moment in the office, someone (was it Jl?) sat on the chair without paying heed to the box, and now the box more readily conforms to the shape of the chair, and people sit in it more frequently.

We still make all sorts of obvious jokes about it, of course.

Last updated by eric Thu Oct 27 06:57 2005 | word | link